Zitate von Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Geburtstag: 12. Oktober 1875
Todesdatum: 1. Dezember 1947
Andere Namen: Alexander Crowley, Ալիստեր Կրոուլի
Aleister Crowley [ˈælɪstə ˈkɹoʊli] war ein britischer Okkultist, Schriftsteller und Bergsteiger.
Crowley bezeichnete sich als den Antichrist und das Große Tier 666 und führte ein ausschweifendes Leben. Von 1898 bis 1900 war er Mitglied im Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, im Anschluss gründete er eigene Gesellschaften, die sich inhaltlich und formell an diesem Orden orientierten. 1904 verfasste er das Buch Liber AL vel Legis , das zur Leitschrift seiner neureligiösen Bewegung Thelema wurde. Crowleys Beschäftigung mit Sexualmagie brachte ihn in Kontakt mit dem Ordo Templi Orientis . Nach einem Aufenthalt in New York gründete er 1920 in Cefalù auf Sizilien die kurzlebige Abtei Thelema. 1925 übernahm er de facto die Leitung des O.T.O. 1935 schuf er das Thoth-Tarot.
Crowley beeinflusste die Geschichte diverser Geheimbünde und neureligiöser Orden und nahm mittelbar Einfluss auf den Wicca-Kult. Auch aufgrund seiner sexuell aufgeladenen Schriften erlangte Crowley in den 1970er Jahren eine große postume Popularität.
Zitate Aleister Crowley

„Every one interprets everything in terms of his own experience. If you say anything which does not touch a precisely similar spot in another man's brain, he either misunderstands you, or doesn't understand you at all.“
— Aleister Crowley, buch Diary of a Drug Fiend
Quelle: Diary of a Drug Fiend
„But exceed! exceed!“
— Aleister Crowley, buch The Book of the Law
II:70-71.
The Book of the Law (1904)
„Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.“
Introduction.
Quelle: Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
Kontext: Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.
(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" — these sentences — in the "magical language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)
In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.
„We must conquer life by living it to the full, and then we can go to meet death with a certain prestige.“
— Aleister Crowley, buch Diary of a Drug Fiend
Quelle: Diary of a Drug Fiend
„Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign?“
— Aleister Crowley, buch The Book of the Law
I:26.
The Book of the Law (1904)
Kontext: Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign? So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.
„Destiny is an absolutely definite and inexorable ruler.“
Ch. 48.
Kontext: Destiny is an absolutely definite and inexorable ruler. Physical ability and moral determination count for nothing. It is impossible to perform the simplest act when the gods say "No." I have no idea how they bring pressure to bear on such occasions; I only know that it is irresistible. One may be wholeheartedly eager to do something which is as easy as falling off a log; and yet it is impossible.
„I'm a poet, and I like my lies the way my mother used to make them.“
— Aleister Crowley, buch Moonchild
Quelle: Moonchild
„I chose therefore the name.
"MAGICK"
as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the available terms.
I swore to rehabilitate
MAGICK,
to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my Word.“
Introduction.
Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
Kontext: In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions of material existence.
I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just as H. P. Blavatsky some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritualism", "Occultism", "Mysticism", all involved undesirable connotations.
I chose therefore the name.
"MAGICK"
as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the available terms.
I swore to rehabilitate
MAGICK,
to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my Word.
„The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of the other; intimacy exacts fitness.“
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
Kontext: The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of the other; intimacy exacts fitness. He therefore who liveth by air, let him not be bold to breathe water. But mastery cometh by measure: to him who with labour, courage, and caution giveth his life to understand all that doth encompass him, and to prevail against it, shall be increase. "The word of Sin is Restriction": seek therefore Righteousness, enquiring into Iniquity, and fortify thyself to overcome it.
„We can no longer assert any single proposition, unless we guard ourselves by enumerating countless conditions which must be assumed.“
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
Kontext: It has always been fatal when somebody finds out too much too suddenly. If John Huss had cackled more like a hen, he might have survived Michaelmas, and been esteemed for his eggs. The last fifty years have laid the axe of analysis to the root of every axiom; they are triflers who content themselves with lopping the blossoming twigs of our beliefs, or the boughs of our intellectual instruments. We can no longer assert any single proposition, unless we guard ourselves by enumerating countless conditions which must be assumed.
„As long as sexual relations are complicated by religious, social and financial considerations, so long will they cause all kinds of cowardly, dishonourable and disgusting behaviour.“
Ch. 7.
Kontext: As long as sexual relations are complicated by religious, social and financial considerations, so long will they cause all kinds of cowardly, dishonourable and disgusting behaviour. When war conditions imposed artificial restraint on the sister appetite of hunger, decent citizens began to develop all kinds of loathsome trickery. Men and women will never behave worthily as long as current morality interferes with the legitimate satisfaction of physiological needs. Nature always avenges herself on those who insult her. The individual is not to blame for the crime and insanity which are the explosions consequent on the clogging of the safety valve. The fault lies with the engineer. At the present moment, society is blowing up in larger or smaller spots all over the world, because it has failed to develop a system by which all its members can be adequately nourished without conflict and the waste products eliminated without discomfort.